It’s no question the past few years have been challenging for real estate professionals. The good news is we are starting to see a break in the clouds as many markets across the country begin to take a turn for the better. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, existing home sales are up an average of 3.4 percent from this time last year and the national median existing home price jumped 10.1 percent. And that’s just the real estate industry.

From a broader perspective, national unemployment rates are down a full percent from last year and payroll job gains are expected to be up 2.1 million this year. With improved job projections, that gives us great hope that there are more people looking to purchase homes.

I sat in the audience at Real Estate Connect last week as the speakers for a panel titled, “Pulling Your Listings From Aggregator Sites: Who Wins?” shuffled onto the stage. I watched and listened closely for just a few minutes. Then I got up and left. I had heard this before. Yes, while listings – which brokers own – should be handled with respect in the course of distribution across the internet, the endless debate over syndication obscures an important truth: Brokers of the future will win on customer experience.

Reports of death are great for shock value and blog traffic but are not particularly useful for true leaders, who invent the future they believe in, regardless of what the pundits say.

Lately there's a lot of talk about the death of IDX, and let's just say I think that assertion is quite premature. It could happen, if brokers continue to be encouraged to abandon the cooperation that has done so well by them and consumers. Headlines like "Brokers pulling out of IDX" are just plain inaccurate. The idea that one can "make plans for the post-IDX world" without knowing what would replace it in NAR policy is a time-waster, plain and simple. That doesn't mean that NAR couldn't spin off a PAG to evaluate the question of "What could or should we do instead of IDX?" - but that process isn't even started, let alone done.